The author is diminishing the bigger picture geostrategic issues such as trade, security, influence and state control. This has little to do with 'expression o

The author is diminishing the bigger picture geostrategic issues such as trade, security, influence and state control. This has little to do with 'expression or values' - they are hardly part of he equation. TikTok is a 'large Chinese company' which means it has deep ties to the government. TikTok users were apparently partly responsible for screwing up Trump's rally. I don't actually believe China was behind this, nor are we sure how much said users had an effect, but the fact that this is plausible is a very, very serious concern. Authoritarian states are getting really, really good at controlling information, it's much more effective than nuclear threats. That most of us happen to loathe Trump (who as far as I am concerned would for TikTok to ban negative videos of him if he could get away with) is besides the point. The 'tit for tat' issues are not issues of 'values' - they are mostly issues of trade asymmetry, and there are very legit concerns there. The notion that one state could have so much information about another state and act coherently on that in the context of a fairly aggressive, almost Imperial plan, is something we're going to have to contend with very soon. Edit: I should add that values/freedom of expression do matter of course, but they are absolutely not the driving factors underlying this issue. Arguably not even part of the equation at this point.